Kiln roller



April 1930- o. E. LARSON 1,752,675

KILN ROLLER Filed May 17, 1927 Oscar E. L arson I N VEN TOR.

Patented Apr. 1, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE OSCAR E. LARSON,LANCASTER, OHIO, ASSIGNOB TO THE HEBMANN MANUFAC- TUBING COMPANY, OFLANCASTER, OHIO, A CORPORATION 01! OHIO KILN ROLLER Application filedMay 17, 1927. Serial No. 192,127.

My invention relates to kiln rollers of the t pe generally used in akiln for drying long at sheets of material, such as thin sheets of wood,fiber, artificial lumber made from va- 5 rious material, composition orthe like, and, more particularly, to an improvement in the means forattaching a bearing shaft to the ends of the kiln rollers.

The roller drier in general use at this time consists of a lon enclosedinsulated box,

heated by some we 1 known means, the material to be dried being passedthrough continuously, over or between driven rollers, and the moisturebeing removed by a suitable ventilation system. The rollers in such adrier may be of any number and have, preferably, been formed withbearing shafts on the ends thereof, these shafts running in ball, rollergraphite or any other kind of hearing. The 2 rollers have either beensolid or hollow, and in both cases, have had gudgeons machined to fitinto openings in the ends of the rollers. This required accuratemachining of the gudgeons and accurate machining and allgnment of theopenings in the ends of the rollers. Furthermore, such rollers have beenheavy, requiring more power to operate a series of rollers, such as usedin a drier kiln, and have been costly to manufacture due to the time andlabor necessary to accurately machine and align each roller.

The primary object of my invention is to provide a much lighter rollerwherein very little time and labor is necessary to prepare the rollerfor operation and much less power is necessary to operate a series ofthese rollers.

Other and further objects of my invention will appear in the followingdescription and the preferred embodiment of my invention will be seen inthe accompanying drawings wherein similar characters of referencedesignate corresponding parts and wherein:

Figure 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a kiln rollerconstructed in accordance with the idea disclosed in my invention.

Figure 2-is an end view taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the end of a kiln drier showing thekiln rollers mounted therein and the means for operating the same.

With reference to Figure 1 of the drawngs, I have shown a kiln rollerconstructed 1n accordance with my invention. This roller 15, preferablymade of tubing, as shown-at 1, such as boiler or seamless tubing,although not llmited thereto. Stampings are also shown that may be ofany desired number and are, preferably, of the form shown at 2 and 3,these stampings being adapted to be disposed on the shaft 4 by a pressfit. After the stampings have been pressed onto the shaft 4, the wholeassembly is inserted into the open end of the tube 1. Before insertionof the assembly, the tube 1 is heated to a temperature that will allowthe assembly to be lnserted into the end of the tube so that, oncooling, the assembly will be held by a shrink fit between the tube andthe stamping. Before the assembly of the shaft 4 and the stampings 2 and3 have been laced in the tube, the stampings are prefera ly welded tothe shaft by spot welding or any other well known means of welding andafter the assembly has been inserted into the tube the stampings may bewelded to the tube in the same manner. The stampings need only bemachined on the outer surfaces thereof, the inner surfaces notcontacting with any working part of the roller or tube and the stamp-,

ings are made of a material flexible enou h to conform to the variationsin size of t e tube thus tending to make the tube run true. In Figure 2,I have shown a View of the end of the roller as it will look with thegudgeon assembly and bearing shaft inserted therein.

I do not wish to belimited to any specific sequence or manner ofinserting the stampings and the shaft into the tube since the stampingsand shaft may be inserted into the tube in the most convenient manner orthe most convenient sequence of parts.

A perspective view of the end of a drier kiln showing the kiln rollers 1mounted therein and the means for operating the same is shown in Figure3. The rollers are mounted in a frame work of steel, cast iron, or someother suitable material, which framework is, preferably arranged forexpansion and contraction. The rollers have sprockets mounted on theends thereof the sprockets being connected and actuated by a series ofchain belts 6. The chain belts are connected at one end to a suitablepower unit 7 which power unit, through the system of gearin justdescribed, simultaneously rotates all 0 the rollers to advance thematerial thereon in the same direction and at the same speed. There maybe any number of rollers and these rollers may be spaced to form aseries of decks as shown in Fi re 3.

It is obvious that it would be a task requirin much time and labor andan operation invo ving much expense to equip a drier kiln with rollersrequirin the ends of each roller and the gudgeons w ich are to beinserted therein to be accurately aligned and machined. Therefore, itWlll be obvious by referring to the previous description that I haveprovided a roller that will eliminate, in a large part, these previousdisadvantages since the gudgeons need no machining and have the requiredflexibility to make them conform to the variations in the tube and shaftthus automatically aligning the roller and makin the roller run true.

One of t e important features of my invention arises from the fact thatthe legs in; termediate the shaft of the tube for connecting the twotogether is of stamped material. Because of this, it is possible toprovide an absolutely true mounting of the tube upon the shaft owing tothe fact that the exterior and the interior of the stamping may be madeabsolutely true without machining.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In a roller structure, a bod portion having a hollow end, a stubshaft orming a journal for such body portion and a plurality of spacedresilient members U-shaped in cross-section for embracing said journaland fitting within the hollow end of the body portion to hold said stubshaft in such hollow end.

2. In a roller structure a body portion having a hollow end, a stubshaft formin a journal for such body portion and a plura t of stampedresilient annular members J shaped in cross-section embracing saidjournal and fitting within said tube to hold said stub shaft in suchhollow end.

In testimony whereof I, hereby, aflix my signature.

OSCAR E. LARSON.

